Anumpa Achukma/Good
News
Language Loss Can Be Reversed
2006.06
This is a newsletter dedicated to reporting the successes in revitalizing endangered languages worldwide. Share your good news with us by sending us an article about your program or current activity in revitalizing an endangered language.
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Postulates and Proposals
A postulate is something assumed to be true that serves as the basis for reasoning or belief [or actions]. In real life, people do this all the time—make decisions based upon their own experiences, the decisions affecting the future. Another way to think of this is that people shape their own futures based upon their own experiences and the decisions/assumptions they make about life. We see this play out in both survival and anti-survival ways in children as they grow up.
I once had a conversation with a young Lakota man who explained how this works. He had stopped drinking, But, as a child, everyone he knew drank and drank to excess. The hardest thing for him was to change that postulate—change that assumption—to one of a life without drinking. This change, of course, has to be made knowingly and with some awareness.
When I was in New Zealand, I interviewed 72 people about their experiences with the Maori language. All of those who were actively involved in learning the language or in teaching the language to others, said they believed the Maori language would survive. Only one interviewee, a teenage Maori girl who had opted not to take Maori in high school or participate in the immersion portion of her school felt that it would not survive. Well, in her experience, it wasn’t surviving. Because she was not part of the revitalization, the language had no future.
Few of the interviewees looked at the numbers of speakers. They looked only at their own experiences. A person’s beliefs are shaped by what they themselves experience. The implications are clear. A child who experiences his/her own language and culture will postulate that into the future unless he/she consciously changes that decision, and historically, adults have done this, e.g. deciding not to teach their children their own language and culture. We know now that this postulate was contra-survival for individuals and groups.
Proposals to consciously change the future are needed. Once made, they need to be acted on: There needs to be some “doing” as well. Te Wänanga-o-Raukawa , a tribal university in New Zealand, is the result of such a process.
Groups in the United States are also postulating a different future for themselves. I have previously reported on the Cherokee efforts and AILDI (American Indian Languages Development Institute), for example.
A new example is taking shape in New Mexico. Native faculty at the University of New Mexico have formed the Institute for American Indian Education. Part of the purpose of this institute is to create “a local and region-wide center of collaborative research that examines major policy issues affecting the survival and maintenance of American Indian languages” as well as “develop and provide Native language teacher training programs, internships for Native language speakers, and technical assistance service to American Indian tribes for tribal language maintenance and preservation initiatives.”
New Mexico is home to 19 Pueblos, 2 Apaches groups, part of the Navajo Nation, and the Alamo and Tóhajiilee Navajo communities. Native Americans now represent 11% of the population. This increase along with the revenue from casinos has helped gain the attention of the New Mexico’s senators and representatives. As a result, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center hosted a field hearing on increasing funding for immersion programs and community programs to promote the use of Native languages. Those testifying included the president of the All Indian Pueblo Council (Zia Pueblo), President of the National Indian Education Association (Oglala Lakota), Dr. Christine Sims (Acoma Pueblo), Dr. Carol Cornelius (Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin), the governor of Sandia Pueblo, and a high school student from Window Rock (Navajo Nation). Each one had powerful statements to make
The following are excerpts from the testimony of Dr. Sims.
Language is at the heart of our sociocultural systems of kinship and identity. Language is at the heart of our systems of jurisprudence and governance….It is the means by which our children are socialized into the life of our community and unique…ways of life. It is the link by which values and beliefs are handed down between and through successive generations.
In referring to results (in reference to the Cochiti Pueblo program), she has this to say.
These children are now at the sate where they are able to speak in the language and are able to use it as a means for communicating with peers, family members and their teachers. Furthermore, they exhibit a confidence in learning that extends beyond the immersion classes and into other areas of their schooling where many of them excel in various academic subjects.
http://www.nmabe.net/file/lina.html
Dr. Cornelius reported the efforts of the Oneida to breath life into their language.
We have only five fluent speakers left who learned Oneida as their first language. Two of those are over 95 years old and unable to assist us anymore. Three of those Elders who are over 86 years old, work with our 8 language trainees [from the 15,591 enrolled members] for 2-7 hours per week.
The Oneida Language Revitalization Program began in the spring of 1996 when a survey found that only 25-30 Elders were left who learned to speak Oneida as their first language. A ten year plan was developed to connect Elders with Oneida Language/Culture Trainees in a semi-immersion process which would produce speakers and teachers of the Oneida language….Our trainees are in language class from 8:30 am to noon, and from 1 pm to 3 pm daily, and they they have 1 1/2 hours study time….
We have six people who are still at the beginner speaker stage who are already teaching basic vocabulary for our Child Care (100 children), Head Start (108), and our school systems (350 elementary and 125 high school students).
She notes that the demand is greater than the number of teachers. Here is the Oneida’s proposal
(1) Official recognition of our elders ad National Treasures (completed in 2003)
(2) Developing and implementing Oneida Nation Language Teacher Certification based on competencies in speaking, teaching, curriculum, linguistics, and teaching materials development
(3) Developing a career path for our youth to become fluent speakers and teachers
(4) Planning for summer immersion family language experience
(5) A radio station in the language
(6) Hearing Oneida language spoken throughout our Nation.
http://language.oneidanation.org/about/language-staff/
She further suggested these changes to the wording in the legislation so that groups like the Oneida will be eligible for funds.
A big thanks to all of you who sent testimony on behalf of this hearing. You can still send letters of support to this email address.
Cameron Hays
Cameron.Hays@mail.house.gov
Cherokee Classes begin
after Labor Day.
Catch the latest news on
the Comanche language at this website—
http://www.comanchelanguage.org/.
Nahuatl Language and Culture Workshops
Mapitzmitl offers these workshops. You can contact him at pazehecatl@hotmail.com. You can view video footage and photographs of Kalpulli Ehecatl (Community of the Wind) at http://kalpulliehecatl2.blogspot.com.
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George Ann Gregory, Ph.D.
Choctaw/Cherokee
Fulbright Scholar